Zuma Latest: Tuesday evening was one hell of a time for news about President Zuma and his possible recall. We go through the latest and look at what you can expect next.

Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of the South Africa Photo Supplied Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko

Well, if you weren’t following any of the Jacob Zuma “resign/recall” news on Tuesday then it’s quite tough knowing where to start. With so much having happened in the last (less than) 24 hours, we thought a timeline might be the most beneficial. This is the Zuma latest.

Going into Tuesday we already knew that the ANC top six had “asked” Zuma to resign. He refused and then the ANC’s National Working Committee (NWC) called for an emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting for Wednesday.

With the NEC being the official decision-making structure of the ANC, the group was expected to make a final decision and officially recall President Zuma. This would mean he would be “told” to step down, instead of asked. *cough* Mbeki 2008 *cough*

Fast forward to Tuesday afternoon and National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete announced that parliament AND President Zuma agreed that SONA should be postponed due to the threat of disruptions and the uncertain political climate. A week-long postponement was said to be the goal.

While all this was going on, President Zuma and ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa were holding lengthy meetings of their own at Tuynhuis in Parliament.

Zuma Latest: Fake News has its say

Post 19:00 – From this point on, things really started getting interesting.

The South African Communist Party (SACP) released a statement calling on President Zuma to confirm or deny if he is going to fire Ramaphosa as Deputy President of the Republic. The tripartite alliance member had been informed that Zuma would appoint Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as his deputy, their sources were reportedly “very trustworthy”.

Within minutes, The Presidency released a statement calling the allegations made by the SACP “preposterous”.

After that, South Africans were left even more confused as news came that the emergency NEC meeting for Wednesday had been cancelled after “constructive discussions” between Zuma and Ramaphosa.

Did this mean Zuma had finally agreed to go?

Post 20:30 – From Russia with love.

At this point, somebody decided to cause real mayhem as a “statement” from the presidency announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be visiting South Africa from 8 February.

eNCA and many other journalists ran the story as fact for a period of time before retracting it as fake.

As the night ended, there was still no resignation by President Zuma.

Zuma Latest: What to expect on Wednesday

As of 8:00 on Wednesday morning, things are still moving fast. President Zuma and ANC President Ramaphosa are set to continue meeting today. Many insiders believe that by tonight, Zuma will be gone.

Parliamentary Speaker Baleka Mbete and ANC Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu have both expressed their belief that there will be some sort of announcement made to the public soon.

Keep your seatbelt on! Things could start moving even faster before it comes crashing to a halt.